Johannesburg

Charlene Smith, who has personally experienced the highs and lows of life in Johannesburg, shares her views of the city in which she was born.

At first glance Johannesburg can disappoint: it seems like a hi-tech clone of middle America. But scratch below its surface and you're in one of Africa's most exciting cities, unlike any other on the continent.

It is home to Nobel Peace Prize winners Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel literature laureate Nadine Gordimer, and some of the world's most advanced medical scientists and palaeoanthropologists. Playwright Athol Fugard premieres his works here, and musicians and singers Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela call Jozi (its name in popular parlance) home.

Jozi is a delightful and energising mix of the first and developing worlds. In summer, it has some of the planet's most fragrant and beautiful suburbs. Purple jacaranda dominate tree-filled districts heavy with the mingled scents of jasmine, honeysuckle, roses, lilies, herbs and fruit trees. Birds fly between magnificent houses with reportedly the highest proportion of swimming pools of any suburbs in the world.

Yet nearby are crowded township streets - splashes of colour with vivid, fast-moving minibus taxis, and roofs painted inblues, yellows and reds. Roadside enterprises offer small kraals of goats and chickens, and goods from wedding cakes to coffins. Hairdressers attend to their clients under the trees. In winter, the sharp African light displays golden fields, red earth and townships smudged with lilac-grey smoke from fires needed for warmth. Blanketed women sit on kerbs roasting mealies (maize) over tin braziers filled with glowing coals.

At its birth a little more than 110 years ago, modern Johannesburg's economy was dominated by gold, liquor and prostitution. A survey in 1896 revealed there were 96 brothels in a town of 50,000 people; now there are probably far fewer in this city of around five million. And while Johannesburg is home to some of the world's wealthiest mining houses, its economy has shifted to technology and financial services. The city has two primary business centres. The older, traditional central business district is a fascinating hub of people drawn from all over Africa, speaking a multitude of languages and dialects. Street traders sell anything from cashew nuts and coconuts, to handbags and shoes, or fruit and vegetables piled on brightly coloured plates. 60% of visitors to the city from other parts of Africa say they come to shop. Inside tall, elegant skyscrapers, bond traders pursue world markets and investment analysts peruse share tickers.

The second and most rapidly growing business district, Sandton, was little more than a residential and shopping hub for the wealthy a decade ago. Now, its stores stock Boss, Prada, Dior, Gucci and a host of other designer labels from New York to Tokyo, but it has also become the premier financial district of the continent. Spacious tree-lined avenues house the offices of most of South Africa's foreign banks and the headquarters of its major investment houses. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (the world's top emerging market exchange) recently opened new offices here.

Despite an appalling crime reputation, Johannesburg is a popular posting for diplomats and foreign executives. In 1996, two years after the country's first democratic elections, the American embassy reported that US companies were opening offices here at the rate of one a week. Many are situated toward the northernmost boundaries of Greater Johannesburg, amid the factories and corporate headquarters that make this city the most technologically advanced in Africa.

Nowhere in the world are more mobile phones used. South Africa's mobile telephony is considered among the most advanced and accessible, and is used in increasing numbers of African countries. Without it, Africa would have less telephone access than New York City.

Its technology may be futuristic, but Johannesburg has a long history. It is situated in South Africa's smallest and wealthiest province, Gauteng, which means "Place of Gold" in Sotho, one of South Africa's 11 official languages. Long before the world's biggest gold rush to this plateau in 1886, African tribes knew the wealth of the area that now generates 40% of South Africa's GDP. 500 years ago, African miners extracted metals from the hills and valleys around Johannesburg and traded with Arab and Indian travellers and with tribes in northern South Africa. Pastoral tribes took advantage of the beautiful plateau, with its perfect climate of warm summers and cool winters, and bartered meat and vegetables with miners for arrowheads, hammers and copper bracelets.

In some of Johannesburg's 30 or so excellent museums you can see evidence of these early inhabitants, and those of even older ancestry. A few minutes' drive from the central city are sites where some of man's oldest ancestors have been found, dating back seven million years. Archaeological digs continue to find traces of early hominids and more contemporary Stone and Iron Age remains. A walk in the Magaliesberg, a gentle mountain range close to the city, shows how layer upon layer of history have imprinted themselves here. A sharp-eyed hiker will find Stone Age implements, Iron Age pottery and stone roads, and watchtowers built by British and Boer forces during the Anglo-Boer war.

Back in Johannesburg are sites reflecting some of the most important history of the 20th century. Mahatma Gandhi had his views formed in South Africa, having lived for more than twenty years at Tolstoy Farm, near Lenasia, just within the outer fringes of Greater Johannesburg, and at Kholvad House, near West Street in Johannesburg. Descendants of those earliest Gandhian followers, many of whom became important figures in South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle, still live in Kholvad House, situated in one of the most historically fascinating areas of the inner city, the Newtown cultural precinct. This is a primary hub for dance, theatre, music and the arts.

Johannesburg has over 30 theatres and a host of art galleries. Its September "Arts Alive" festival draws huge audiences to a feast of art, music, ballet, opera and drama, in parks, theatres and galleries around the city. Close to the Newtown precinct is a vibrant street-friendly melange of Indian traders selling bowls of spices, delectable curries and samosas. African healers offer traditional medicine (muti) made from items such as vultures' claws and lily bulbs. A short drive away is the 50-year-old Mai Mai Market, originally established for migrant workers. Here tourists can find traditional African medicines, sandals made from tyres, Zulu and Shangaan beadwork, carved furniture and perhaps a sangoma to throw the bones and tell your fortune. Close by, in a small area bound by Kerk and Delvers Streets, are old Portuguese colonial-type cafes and restaurants offering strong black coffee, rich stews and sweet cakes, as well as sidewalk vendors selling everything from dried fish to palm oil. Jewel City in Fox Street also draws tourists, who are attracted to the wholesale gold and diamond merchants where they can choose a diamond, see it being cut and select its setting at prices even cheaper than Amsterdam's.

Despite international perceptions, Johannesburg offers its wealthier residents a special lifestyle. Editor Patti Garlick loves living there because of its "endless horizons, cloudless skies, the winter light and summer thunderstorms." For her, "Emmarentia Dam and the Botanical Gardens or Zoo Lake are Johannesburg's jewels - whether it's messing about in boats on the dam or enjoying an outdoor symphony concert with a picnic basket and wine."

Resident businessman Keith Brebner believes "Johannesburg has a self confident, energetic and challenging buzz. People network, lunch, and play music together. Some tour guides have labelled it the coolest city on the continent. People party as hard as they work." Jozi, it seems, has its admirers after all.

Soweto

Among the world's most notorious black spots, South-west Township has evolved, post-apartheid, into one of South Africa's top tourist attractions. Charlene Smith reports.

wenty-five years ago, on June 16, 1976, police opened fire on African school pupils protesting against Afrikaans as the language used in schools, and Soweto entered history as one of the most instantly recognisable and infamous place names in the world. Yet since the advent of democracy in 1994, an influx of foreign visitors has made it South Africa's seventh most popular tourist destination.

It is a red-roofed, red dust sort of place, resting among beige highveld grasslands cut through with the lightning flashes of innumerable white and pale blue minibus taxis, often painted with advertising slogans. Unless the rains swell its waters, the Klipspruit River meanders apologetically through the settlements, with lush borders of green.

Soweto (the name is an acronym of South-west Townships) was established in the 1940s to house African people separately from Johannesburg's white population. By the time of the 1976 student uprising, Soweto had grown into a city of two million people.

It had no industrial or commercial infrastructure, only one swimming pool, one park and many small shops (but no shopping centres). It was crammed with a sprawling conglomeration of matchbox houses, miners' hostels and shantytown shacks, but its people remained vibrant and spirited.

Despite its history of oppression and struggle, many foreign visitors are surprised to see that, for the most part, Soweto is not as poor as many similar locales elsewhere in Africa, Asia or Latin America. However appearances belie the fact that unemployment is high, fuelling a staggering crime rate.

There are numerous sites for tourists to visit and at each, if you are friendly, Soweto folk will be only too pleased to stop and chat. However, it's still not safe to drive around on your own; always go accompanied by a reputable guide or on an organised tour.

Soweto never presents the expected answer. The Nelson Mandela museum in Vilikazi Street, Orlando West, should have been a relatively simple, patriotism-inspiring symbol, yet became the centre of controversy. This was the house Mandela lived in from 1940 with his first wife, Evelyn, and then after 1956 with his second wife, Winnie. After more than 50 years as a rent-paying tenant (only within the past decade have Africans been allowed to own homes), Mandela took ownership of the small four-roomed house in 1997 and gave it to the Soweto Heritage Trust, which protects historical sites and promotes tourism.

However Winnie Mandela, despite a generous divorce settlement, saw the house as part of her maintenance. The Soweto Heritage Trust had the papers, but she had the keys and, bringing in a posse of builders, she erected a ticket booth, turned the garage into a souvenir store and opened the house as a museum in December 1997. The Trustees gently asked her to leave, but she declined. It is estimated that around 1,000 tourists a day now visit Soweto and nearly all go to the Mandela museum, which contains items such as Mandela's graduation robe and prison shoes, and a small collection of gifts he received from leaders such as Colonel Gaddafi of Libya.

The museum is a stone's throw from the brown and beige mansion Winnie Mandela built before her husband was released from jail, in which she still lives. Visitors can often be seen tramping the low ridge of the hill that separates the two houses, trying to peer down on them.

Close to the Mandela homes and to that of Archbishop Desmond Tutu is the Hector Petersen Memorial, in honour of a ten-year-old boy killed in the 1976 uprising. In time, the memorial (which was dedicated by US President Clinton in 1998) will be flanked by a museum, a library, an art gallery, a theatre and an exhibition in part of a nearby school.

June 2001 saw a plethora of events commemorating the 25th anniversary of the uprising and the creation of the ANC Freedom Charter - the ideological underpinning of the struggle against white domination, established at the Congress of the People in Soweto in 1955, at a place now known as Freedom Square. A kilometre away from the Petersen Memorial is Avalon cemetery, the final resting place of political leaders such as Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph and Joe Slovo.

Sydney Phuti, who formerly headed Tourism Johannesburg and was vice-chairman of the Soweto Heritage Trust, grew up in Soweto. He was educated at Orlando High, one of the two schools which demonstrated in 1976. But Sydney's recollections are those of someone who knows Soweto as home, and not as scenes from video clips. The classroom he was in as a pupil, he recalls, had large holes in the walls. Dogs chased cats in through one and out through another in the opposite wall. The ceilingless tin roof leaked and when it rained teachers and pupils alike sat at their desks under umbrellas. Many schools are now benefiting from donations from aid organisations and wealthy alumni. Morris Isaacson, the other school involved in the 1976 uprising, now has gleaming computer labs and Internet connections for communication with schools abroad.

Those more interested in culture than the political past can take a short walk or drive to Ubuntu Kraal, to sample traditional beer and watch tribal dancing. This is a favoured venue for weddings and celebrations in Soweto, and an open double-decker bus brings tourists from Johannesburg hotels.

A further 2km from the Mandela homes, in Central West Jabavu, is the Oppenheimer Park which has Soweto's best vantage point (from its imitation Zimbabwe Ruins tower) and its most comprehensive collection of indigenous plants, including superb cycads concentrated around the remarkable village specially built as a testimony to African mythology and culture.

At some stage, most tourists retire to a shebeen (bar) for some refreshment and gossip. Shebeens tell a lot about the story of Soweto. They arose because the apartheid government would not allow Africans to consume liquor unless they could prove they had passed ten years of schooling and had successfully applied for a special permit which allowed no more than six bottles of beer and a bottle of spirits a month. As a result "spots" (early shebeens) were formed by professional bootleggers, one of whom was the late Godfrey Moloi, who, until his recent death, was one of Soweto's best known nightclub owners.

Moloi explained how the Africans used to go into the cities and use white tramps to buy beer or spirits for them. The quantities were small and the tramps often tried to drink the goods before handing them over, but it was enough to keep the spots going.

Moloi was arrested "hundreds of times". During a bootlegging career that went on until liquor restrictions were eased in 1988, he had five cars, nine fridges and unknown quantities of alcohol confiscated by police.

In 1989 shebeens became licensed and are now run as taverns and nightclubs. Moloi's progeny and other householders are also turning a profit with guesthouses. The Moloi guesthouse is well situated. Guests are charged R350 a night for lavish rooms with crisp sheets and are served good home cooking. On average, Soweto guesthouse rates are closer to R150 a night, with meals being simple South African fare of meat, two veg and potatoes or rice.

Even though Soweto is gradually losing its infamy and becoming absorbed into mainstream South Africa, it remains a colourful community that still throws up quirks. A company that built a new local stadium was astonished to note, soon after laying down the field, that the turf had disappeared. A couple of days later, the grass reappeared. A local man had noted the ease with which the lawn was rolled up and unrolled, and had borrowed it to cover the dusty earth in the tents for his daughter's wedding. After the nuptials he returned it. The people of Soweto are obviously as enterprising as ever.

Most tours to Soweto are by minibus or luxury coach. An average three-hour tour costs around R400.

Pretoria

Johannesburg's frumpy cousin or a stately but vibrant capital? Philip Briggs gets under Pretoria's skin.

For a national capital of almost a century's standing, Pretoria has a curiously low profile within its own country. In large part this is because it has long been overshadowed by nearby Johannesburg, the vibrant economic hub of Southern Africa. But Pretoria also has the misfortune - more, perhaps, than any other South African city - to have retained embarrassing associations with a time many would rather forget. It was within the sedate confines of Pretoria's central square that self-styled freedom fighter Barend Strydom arbitrarily opened fire on a streetful of his black compatriots during the dying years of the apartheid regime; from the parliamentary halls of the Union Buildings that those ominous words echoed around the world on a daily basis during the 1980s: "A spokesmen for Pretoria said today...".

Pretoria, lest we should forget, was the capital of apartheid. Even today it is still widely perceived to be a kind of fuddy-duddy, illiberal older cousin to that flighty upstart Johannesburg. Organised tours of the city make little effort to dispel this image, concentrating as they do on a series of landmarks placed firmly in the "old" South Africa - most famously the dourly parochial yet oddly affecting Voortrekker Monument, which stands in monolithic isolation on the city's outskirts. The tours overlook more life-affirming experiences, such as those offered by a number of Ndebele cultural villages that lie within easy day-tripping range of the city centre.

Pretoria's stuffy image is unfair, but not entirely without foundation. Particularly during October, when its famous jacarandas come into bloom, the capital is possessed of a stately, almost Old World quality - one that Johannesburg, certainly, will never have. The city centre is determinedly old-fashioned: a bric-a-brac stall of outmoded mid-20th century architecture intruded upon by a mere scattering of contemporary modern office blocks and shopping malls. Then again, at least Pretoria has a functional economic and social heart. Contrast this to Johannesburg, which - largely as a result of its excessive crime rates - has of late been reduced to a vast and unfocused sprawl of paranoid suburbia, radiating from a high-rise cluster regarded as a no-go zone by most of its residents.

Changing times have left their mark on many of Pretoria's most notorious apartheid-era relics, none more so than the Union Buildings, the main seat of government both before and after South Africa's first democratic elections were held in 1994. Like the Voortrekker Monument, the Union Buildings were a whites-only preserve during the apartheid era (a nod here to architect Sir Herbert Baker's thoughtful inclusion of "a small, partly open council place where, without coming into the building, natives may feel the majesty of government"). Today however this formerly reviled bastion of white supremacy is far more famous as the site of Nelson Mandela's globally televised presidential inauguration. A row of bullet-proofed windows has, for seven years now, protected the office of an ANC president.

So, fair enough, Pretoria isn't the stick-in-the-mud it's made out to be. But is it worth visiting? Well, it would be stretching a point to class the capital's attractions alongside the breathtaking beauty of Cape Town, or even the seaside bustle of Durban. But Pretoria is a diverting enough place, one which boasts a more defined and compact tourist circuit (and poses far less of a crime threat) than the big smoke of Johannesburg.

Viewed in the spirit of instruction rather than judgement, Pretoria's wealth of historical landmarks and museums do in fact provide a revealing window into South Africa's past. At one extreme, you have the Police Museum, an almost incidental document of apartheid-era brutality; at the other, the multi-cultural celebration of ethnographic displays housed in the National Museum of Culture.

Pretoria is a city of museums, but that doesn't make it a museum of a city. In semi-central suburbs such as Sunnyside and Hatfield, you'll find streets lined with lively restaurants and clubs that run the gamut from trendy to seedy - an atmosphere far closer to that of lauded Johannesburg nocturnal hangouts such as Melville than to the popular image of stuffy old Pretoria. There is a world-class national theatre; there are art galleries and gay bars; flea markets and Asian bazaars; backpackers' hostels and student dives; South Africans of all races, creeds and persuasions. Pretoria was the capital of apartheid. Today, lest we should forget, it is the capital of the new South Africa.

Cradle of Mankind

Less than an hour from Johannesburg lies Sterkfontein, the world's richest fossil hominid site. David Holt-Biddle digs beneath the surface.

The origins of Sterkfontein stretch back towards the Earth's youth. The dolomitic rock that forms the cave complexes of the whole valley is 2.4 billion years old, formed when the entire region was covered by a vast, shallow sea. Because dolomite is water-soluble, subterranean solution cavities formed deep in the rock. By around four million years ago, the sea had disappeared, causing these cavities to be opened to the surface through erosion, which exposed the extensive cave complex.

The open caves came to be filled with the detritus of the ages: surface soil, dead vegetable matter and the remains of animals like Sabre-toothed tigers and giant hyaena, as well as primitive hominids believed to be ancestral to man. This natural flotsam formed the material currently being investigated by archaeologists, to whom it is giving up its treasures and revealing the past, step by careful step.

Today, Sterkfontein is the core of the UNESCO Cradle of Humanity World Heritage Site, proclaimed in 1999. Its 47,000ha comprise rolling hills and grasslands, including around a dozen other important palaeoanthropological sites.

The first fossils are thought to have been retrieved from the Sterkfontein breccia by monks in 1896, soon after the caves were opened up for lime quarrying. However spectacular finds were not made until 1936, when the archaeologist Robert Broom took an interest in the site. It was then that the hominid fossils, specifically those of Australopithicus africanus, began to emerge (including the vital "Mrs. Ples" skull found by Dr. Broom) and Sterkfontein's reputation was secured.

Situated 45 minutes' drive west of Johannesburg, the World Heritage Site is the direct responsibility of the Gauteng provincial government, but Sterkfontein itself is owned by the University of the Witwatersrand and falls under its control. Numerous eminent archaeologists have worked the site over the years, but it was Witwatersrand's Dr. Ron Clarke who uncovered what has probably been Sterkfontein's greatest treasure to date.

In 1994 he found some fossil hominid foot bones in a cardboard box in a storeroom. The form of the bones, which together became known as Little Foot, was particularly unusual and Clarke launched a search for more specimens. The search eventually led to the discovery in late 1997 of what is probably the most complete skeletal specimen of an Australopithicine ever found. At 3.3 million years, it is certainly one of the oldest.

More discoveries, we are told, are on their way, reinforcing Sterkfontein's status as the world's richest single fossil hominid site and the cornerstone of Africa's identity as the Cradle of Mankind.

Sterkfontein is open to visitors - you can either turn up and look round with a local guide, or arrange a tour from Johannesburg.

Out and About in Gauteng

Gauteng arguably has a greater diversity of attractions and things to do than any other South African province. We look at some of the offerings in and around the main centres.

The Freedom Trail

For a window on South Africa's history, take a few days to visit the following buildings and memorials.

Johannesburg area:

Gandhi Square: A recently renovated square commemorating Mahatma Gandhi's life in South Africa. His office is nearby.

Soweto

Freedom Square where the "People's Bill of Rights" was proclaimed in 1955; Hector Petersen Memorial (1976 Soweto uprising); Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu's houses; graves of white anti-apartheid leaders Joe Slovo and Helen Joseph (Avalon Cemetery) and township shebeens (once illegal pubs).

Other Townships

Africans were allowed to own property in Alexandra and Sophiatown. Both were centres for anti-government activities. The Alexandra bus boycott of the early 1940s and the destruction, twenty years later, of Sophiatown, a vibrant centre of township culture, are particularly remembered.

Yeoville, the childhood home of Joe Slovo, communist leader in the 1950s, is a vibrant inner-city ghetto. Solomon Mahlangu, a resident executed for political activity in the 1970s, is commemorated in a statue in Mamelodi Township. None of the townships should be visited without a guide.

Mandela and Tambo law offices. It was from this law firm, established in 1952, that Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo defended clients victimised by the State. The ANC non-violent "Programme of Action", based on Gandhi's philosophy, was formulated here.

Sharpeville Police Station. Scene of the infamous shooting of 69 people, many in the back, on 21 March 1960. They had gathered in front of the Police Station to demonstrate against the pass laws.

Johannesburg Fort. This 19th century Boer Fort has held many famous prisoners, including Gandhi, Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Joe Slovo and 156 detainees in the 1956 treason trials. The complex can only be visited on an organised tour.

Turffontein Concentration Camp. One of the camps where some 26,000 Boer women, children and aged civilians were interned by the British during the Boer War.

Enoch Sontonga Memorial. A large black marble memorial at Brixton Cemetery commemorates the author of Nkosi sikele iAfrica (God bless Africa).

The Drill Hall. The building in Joubert Park where the opening sessions of the infamous Treason Trial began in 1956. Large public protests outside forced the trial's transfer to a Pretoria synagogue. The defence was led by Bram Fischer, a prominent Afrikaner who afterwards lived undercover in Waverley before being arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Pretoria Area

Union Buildings. The government headquarters, designed by Sir Herbert Baker, housing the President's Office. The scene of Nelson Mandela's inauguration in 1994.

Palace of Justice. This was the location of the famous Rivonia Trial, in which Nelson Mandela and others were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Paul Kruger Memorial. A majestic statue of the legendary Boer leader stands near his modest home in Church Street. He and his wife are buried in Hero's Acre, final resting place for many on both sides who died in the Boer War.

Pretoria Central Prison. This heavily fortified complex contains Death Row, where many convicted of treason or atrocities during the apartheid era, including Solomon Mahlangu, were executed.

Voortrekker Monument. Symbolic monument and Museum of Voortrekkers: notable friezes, tapestry and other memorabilia.

Other Attractions

Bruma Market. With around 600 stalls, 15 restaurants and round-the-clock entertainment, Gauteng's greatest draw card attracts 2.5 million visitors each year.

Top of Africa. The observation deck on the 50th floor of the Carlton Centre gives panoramic overviews of Johannesburg.

Randburg Waterfront. 30 places to eat (from pizza palaces to steak houses), bars, cinemas, shops, flea markets, a games arcade and playgrounds, around a lake with a 16m-high musical fountain.

Diamond Tour. Visits to the Diamond Cutting and Polishing Centre, the Diamond Supply Company and Erikson Diamond Centre.

Gold Reef City. Underground visit, gold pouring, reconstructed Victorian buildings, miniature railway, and traditional Zulu music and gumboot dances.

Willem Prinsloo Museum. An interactive experience featuring Ndebele and early settler life in South Africa.

Market Theatre Complex. The complex has a beaux-arts facade and was renowned for powerful anti-apartheid dramas. It houses four theatres; the socio-historic Museum Africa with exhibits covering the 1956 Treason Trial; the hostels, library and jail cells of migrant labourers; an art gallery; shops, lively cafes and mineral, curio and flea markets.

Eating Out

There are literally hundreds of eateries catering for a full range of palates and pockets. Below are some recommended by critics and visitors.

Johannesburg area

For takeaways try African Huts' exotic local delicacies and Nando's if you favour Portuguese-style fast food.

For South African steaks and game meat such as impala, kudu and ostrich, visit Carnivore. Ethnic South African (Cape Malay, Indian and Dutch) may be sampled at Gramadoelas At the Market, Leipoldt's, Ivavaya and Anton van Wouw (which also serves game meat). Good restaurants specialising in South African fish, such as snoek, include The Fisherman's Grotto, Codfather, Elem Prawns and Horatio's.

A host of other establishments cater for lovers of Portuguese, Italian, French and Oriental food. Traditional English can be had at Linger Longer and Californian fare at Sausalito. Vegetarians should make for Vegetarian Greens and Mary Anne's Ecocuisine.

Those seeking real indigenous dishes, beer and music should head for Soweto - Edwaleni restaurant and Wandies Pappies and Skakaras shebeens in particular. Try maheu (opaque sorghum beer) but beware of mampoer and witblitz - moonshine brews that will blow your head off.

Pretoria

Recommended steakhouses include Hillside Tavern, Black Steer and Crawdaddy's. Among many restaurants serving classic Dutch/Afrikaner dishes, including game, are Diep in die Berg and Gerard Moerdyk. La Perla specialises in seafood while Giovanni's (Italian), Chagall's at Toulouse, Chez Patrice and La Madeleine (French) have good reputations. There are a number of other good Oriental and continental restaurants in the city.

Traditional Dutch/Afrikaner fare. White South Africans love big meat (and occasionally snoek) steaks on the braai (barbecue), adore biltong (strips of meat, particularly game, salted, spiced and dried) and always have wors (boerwors - literally "farmer sausage") on the breakfast braai. They also enjoy: bobotie (curried meat); sosaties (spiced kebabs); potjies (usually mutton or venison stews cooked in a three-legged pot); bredie (stew); mealies (corn on the cob) and roosterkoek (bread baked in coal ash).

Hot favourites on the cold sweet side are melktert (cinnamon milk tart), koeksisters (sweet doughnut twists) and konfyt (preserved fruits). Some restaurants will also offer breyani, a spicy Malay curry.

When shopping, local specialities to consider are estate bottled wines, Van der Hum (naatjie or tangerine) and Amarula (wild marula fruit) liqueurs, South African cheeses, vacuum-packed biltong and konfyt.

Accommodation

A voluntary grading system covers all types of accommodation. However the 1-5-star ratings, based on facilities, furnishings, services and food, do not necessarily equate to international standards. Visitors may be more comfortable using one of the hotel chains - Sun International, Southern Sun, Holiday Inn, Protea and City Lodges. The Carlton Court and Sandton Sun are highly reputed, but the Braamfontein, Gold Reef City, Holiday Inn Garden Court, Rosebank (all in Johannesburg) and Burgerspark (Pretoria) all challenge for top rating. The Grace and the Westcliff in Johannesburg and Illyria House in Pretoria are among the boutique hotels available.

There are a host of good mid-price establishments to be located through one of the several hotel guide publications.

For the budget conscious there are a good number of B&Bs and self-catering establishments in the suburbs - if you have your own transport. Particular favourites of backpackers are Eastgate Explorers, Pink House, Travellers, Rocky Street and Backpackers in Johannesburg, and Mzuri Afrika, North South, Word of Mouth and Backpackers in Pretoria.

Facts About Gauteng:

• Means "a place of gold" in the Sotho language.
• Is South Africa's smallest province.
• Sits on the Witwatersrand (Ridge of White Water) under which lie vast reserves of gold, green diamonds, carbon, uranium, silver and platinum.
• Has 43% of South Africa's urban population, more than
• 45% of its white population and nearly one in eight of all its people.
• Generates about 40% of the country's GDP.
• Accounts for 60% of its fiscal revenue.
• Contains about 30% of the world's known gold reserves.
• Accounts for a staggering 28% of Sub-Saharan Africa's GDP.

Published in Travel Africa Edition Eighteen: Winter 2001/02. Text is subject to Worldwide Copyright (c)